By Sushil Kutty
It is like the ‘Crusades’. New Pope Leo XIV will know. He grew up in Chicago, Al Capone’s headquarters, just like the GHQ in Rawalpindi, Pak army Chief Gen. Asim Munir’s lair. Does Gen. Munir fancy himself Saladin? If so, who is King Richard the Lionheart, Prime Minister Narendra Modi?
The point is, the ongoing warlike atmosphere in the border districts of India and almost all of Pakistan reminds one of the Crusades, which was a religious enterprise. The problem for Pakistan is that the country is too narrow a strip to contemplate a wide scope.
Then, again, India and Pakistan at war isn’t heady concoction. The daily night cross-border shelling is too routine to raise hackles. People are cheering the “war” here in India and Pakistan’s bravado is lip service, limited to TV newsrooms and DG-ISPR press briefings.
Off and on, Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khwaja Asif comes up with ultimatums! Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is reticent but only a little, and hysterics is his calling card. This side of the border, nationalists crowd, many of them in TV news studios.
Hostilities entered the fourth day on May 10 and the religiously divided countries aren’t tired of trading accusations, barbs, drones, loitering munitions, and missiles. There’s a display of gay abandon on social media.
International calls to end the dangerous to-and-fro have been met with indifference. From India mostly. India doesn’t take diktats from so-called superpowers. The attitude dates back to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and would have peaked if Sanjay Gandhi hadn’t taken a fall. What if Rahul Gandhi comes of age? That’s a thought!
On the other side, Pakistan would rather take a siesta. But Pakistan has an enemy: The Pakistan Army. Throughout Pakistan’s short life so far, the Pakistan Army has been Pakistan’s crown. Martial Law is no stranger to Pakistan. Three Pakistani dictators and uniform-worship is the national pastime. The Army has ruled Pakistan with an iron fist. Yet there is a soft corner for the uniform.
The dangerous stuff is the mix of martial and Muslim. Dictator Gen. Zia-ul-Haqand current Army Chief, Gen. Asim Munir. In between there was Gen. Parvez Musharraf of “Chandni Chowk, Purani Dilli”! The second is the harder nut: Islamic grey matter in a gooey mix of military hardware and religious software. Gen. Munir’s wired mind was forged in the cradle of a Pakistani religious seminary.
The uniform is Gen. Munir’s cover. Gen. Munir hasn’t been spotted for a couple of days. Is he nuking his brain to zero in on a nuclear end to the war? Gen. Munir resurrected the “two-nations theory” and there was “Pahalgam” with the paradigm shift. But for Gen. Munir, we wouldn’t be awake till the wee hours.
Gen. Munir deserves all the bad publicity coming his way in a torrent, kamikaze drones striking with abandon. What are the chances Gen. Munir is stopped in his tracks? Countries are calling on India and Pakistan to stop the fighting and smell the ‘Chai’, which is a Pakistani joke at the expense of India’s jet-pilots!
The G7 has, however, had enough of jokes: De-escalate and maximum restraint. Then what, what to do with the sniffer dogs? The dogs of war have been unleashed. Prime Minister Narendra Modi bluffed with “this is not an era of wars.” What about President Donald Trump? ‘USA First’ is a cover for deception.
President Trump’s confusion in the mind regarding the “war” in the subcontinent is deliberate. Not even ‘Hindu’ Tulsi Gabbard can change Trump’s mind, forget Vice President JD Vance, who was in New Delhi when Pahalgam hit the fan!
India and Pakistan have been fighting ever since Pakistan was carved out of India, a trophy for the Muslim conquest of Bharat! History is witness that India that is Bharat got a raw deal when the subcontinent was sliced, diced, and partitioned. The roots of the escalating military hostilities can be traced to that midnight when Jawaharlal Nehru held out hope at the stroke of the midnight hour.
The drones and the missiles criss-crossing the LoC and the International border tell the story of the tryst with destiny gone wrong! There are a bunch of Indians who want the hostilities stopped. But there is no hope when nationalism and patriotism are interchangeable. Also, it is a cinch who will be on which side of history, right or wrong, when all of this is over, one way or the other?
The conflict just now looks like there will be no easy and quick end. It is snakes and ladders and nobody’s guess how many rungs to climb? India’s contention is that Pahalgam was the first escalation while Pakistan is asking, “What Pahalgam?” Pakistan often drops the ‘N’ word and the world snickers. This war cannot be won by Pakistan without the nuclear warhead!
What’s in the viper head of Gen. Asim Munir? Munir packed off his family overseas. Will the Mad Hatter in him goad him to thumb the nuclear button? It will be MAD, mutually assured destruction, and Armageddon! Pakistan journalist Hamid Mir finds Asim Munir a fascinating and comforting man.
Pahalgam was Gen. Asim Munir acting in absentia. His twisted words found resonance and haven’t stopped reverberating since then. The deadly terrorist attack on the Hindu tourists in Kashmir was a diabolical act and the ongoing “war” is full of religious symbolism. There’s a crusade-like colour to the hostilities. (IPA Service)
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